Atiku to Presidency: I can’t be jealous of administration whose policies are killing Nigerians

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says he can’t be jealous of President Bola Tinubu when the president’s economic policies and approach to governance are killing Nigerians.

Mr Atiku disclosed this in a statement on Monday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 election lamented that Nigerians have continued to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation.

Mr Atiku said: “On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods like food would be lifted for 150 days. But over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off, while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40%, the highest in decades.“

The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the finance ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflects the fatuousness, inanity, and incompetence that characterizes the Tinubu administration.

“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!”

Mr Atiku argued that Tinubu’s abysmal performance in the last 18 months had made it clear to all Nigerians that he came into office unprepared, hence the many policy flip-flops that have so far characterised his tenure.

He added: “Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office. He acts first and thinks of the consequences afterwards. This was why he announced an abrupt removal of petrol subsidy without any cushions.

“After seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it.

“The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick-off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states. The result is that transport costs continue to soar along with prices of food.

“In his mid-term expenditure framework, he projected the exchange rate at N700/$1 in 2024 and N650/$1 by 2025. Rather than sack his economic advisers, he continues to live in a fool’s paradise, deceiving Nigerians about the FX reserve of $40bn when, in fact, the net reserves are less than 20% of that. Let the CBN release its financial statements of 2023 if he is sure of his achievements.”

Mr Atiku described as unfortunate the announcement by the military authorities on the emergence of a new terror organization known as Lakurawa.

He argued that coupled with the incessant grid collapses in the north due to the activities of criminal elements, Tinubu ought to focus more on improving security, which is a sine qua non for investments.

The former Vice President argued that the President had decided to play politics with security by appointing his kinsmen to top security and economic positions.

“Even on the economy, he put his kinsmen in every key position beginning from finance minister, trade and investment, CBN, customs and FIRS. Even President Muhammadu Buhari was not this brazen.“

Nigeria is currently the worst performing currency in Africa and is now the 5th largest economy on the continent, falling from first when the failure called APC took over in 2015.

Most Nigerians are at their wits’ end, not knowing where their next meal will come from. This should be Tinubu’s biggest concern instead of fiddling while the country burns.”